Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

The nuclear secrets posted online were part of an archive of Iraqi documents, some in English and some in Arabic, posted at the urging of conservatives anxious to vindicate President Bush's Iraq invasion.

The campaign for the online archive was mounted by conservative publications and politicians, who said that the nation's spy agencies had failed adequately to analyze the 48,000 boxes of documents seized since the March 2003 invasion. With the public increasingly skeptical about the rationale and conduct of the war, the chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees argued that wide analysis and translation of the documents -- most of them in Arabic -- would reinvigorate the search for clues that Mr. Hussein had resumed his unconventional arms programs in the years before the invasion. American search teams never found such evidence. (NYT, 11/3)

Importantly, the six Arab countries planning nuclear programs are, by and large, friendly to the United States and its oil companies, begging the question whether U.S. officials intentionally made the nuclear weapons information available, to counter the threat posed by Iran. At a minimum, this appears to be yet another example of mind-boggling negligence on the part of the Bush administration.

The government had received earlier warnings about the contents of the Web site. Last spring, after the site began posting old Iraqi documents about chemical weapons, United Nations arms-control officials in New York won the withdrawal of a report that gave information on how to make tabun and sarin, nerve agents that kill by causing respiratory failure. (NYT, 11/3)

According to the New York Times, the website included papers that "give detailed information on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well as the radioactive cores of atom bombs."

Regardless if Saddam Hussein ever had the weapons of mass destruction alleged by President Bush, this administration has allowed proliferation of nuclear technology and terrorism on a scale far more terrifying than anything the Iraqi dictator could have conjured up.

Come Monday, every able voter should demand that Congress immediately investigate these alarming events and determine whether George W. Bush is competent to remain another two years as President. Along with global warming, nuclear proliferation ignored by the current administration threatens to destroy the future of our children, our nation and our planet. Americans cannot afford to wait until 2008 for responsible leadership.  The time is now.